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Infogrames (France)
Background: Infogrames was a large French gaming company, famous for many titles, including Alone in the Dark, Shadow of the Comet, and Hogs of War. The company began in 1983. They made several major acquisitions in late 90's, which included Ocean Software, Philips Media, Gremlin Interactive, Accolade, Beam Software, GT Interactive, Shiny, Eden Games and Hasbro Interactive (with Microprose and Atari brand). The brand name of Atari, taken from Hasbro, was relaunched in October 2001 and replaced Infogrames' name in all games since 2003. In October 2008 the company fully assimilated the Atari name and eventually became the new Atari, Inc. in said year, after many financial struggles. 1st Logo (1983-1995) Nickname: "The Armadillo", "The Rainbow Armadillo", "Infogrames Armadillo", "Ugly Armadillo" Logo: Against a white background, we see a black armadillo with rainbow stripes. Below it is the word "INFOGRAMES". The logo usually fades in, stays a while, and fades out. FX/SFX: None. Cheesy Factor: The armadillo looks rather ugly--given the limitations of animation at this time period, however, it's acceptable. Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the game. Availability: Rare, but can still be found on copies of old games from the 80s. Scare Factor: Depending on variant: * Silent Variant: None. * With The Game's Opening Theme: Minimal to low. However, it's nothing compared to the next logo you see below... 2nd Logo (1992) Nicknames: "Armadillo In The Dark", "The Rotating Armadillo (Of Doom)", "CGI Armadillo", "InfogrAAAUUGH!", "Infogrames Armadillo II", "Rainbow Armadillo II", "CGI Infogrames Armadillo" Logo: We fade in to see a primitive version of the 90's gray Infogrames logo on a black background. After a brief flash of lightning and sudden clap of thunder, the armadillo and words become very early CGI renditions of themselves, and the armadillo rotates in the same manner as an object from the game Alone In The Dark. The logo fades out after it makes one rotation. FX/SFX: The thunder, the lightning flash, the armadillo and text turning into CGI, the armadillo rotating, the fade in, the fade out, produced by Olive Jar Animation. Cheesy Factor: That early CGI is exceptionally awful—look at all those polygons (much like N64 graphics)! And when the armadillo rotates, its eyes disappear! Music/Sounds: Just the thunder. Availability: Extremely rare. This logo is only found on the game Alone in the Dark. This logo is not a variant of the third logo; it is a direct precursor to the third logo, and was therefore only used once. Scare Factor: Low to nightmare. This could be an extremely scary logo, due to the sudden thunder and the absolutely atrocious look of the armadillo and horrible CGI. You could also, however, be laughing at how exceptionally poor this logo is, but it's fitting for the Alone in the Dark, as it is a horror-themed game. Nicknames: "The Grey Armadillo", "Rainbow Armadillo III", "Infogrames Armadillo III" 3rd Logo (1993-1998) Logo: Same as the last logo, but the colored stripes aren't as bright as the first logo. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the game. Availability: Rare, found only on games of that period. * Scare Factor: Depending on variant: * Silent Version: None. * With The Game's Opening Theme: Minimal to low. Overall, this is much tamer than the 2nd logo. 4th Logo (1995-2001) Nicknames: "Spiral Armadillo", "Fancy Rainbow Armadillo", "Infogrames Armadillo IV" Logo: On a white background, a more stylized version of the armadillo draws itself starting from the tail, then the text "INFOGRAMES" fades in below. Variants: * Sometimes only the fade-in was used, and the background can be black. This can be seen on Starshot: Space Circus Fever (with the Nintendo logo) and V-Rally Edition '99, both for Nintendo 64, and the PlayStation version of Mission: Impossible. * For pre-2000 Game Boy Color games and on such DOS versions of The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun, Tintin in Tibet, The Smurfs, Asterix and Obelix and Spirou, the logo is still. * On Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, the logo is flat and not animated. Then it cuts to the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment logo. * On Slave Zero, the words "PRESS START BUTTON" are seen under the logo. Plus, the logo isn't animated. FX/SFX: The drawing. Music/Sounds: None for the still version. The animated version has a synthesized note with the faint arpeggio and a whoosh in the background, then a 6-note trumpet melody with the last note being the orchestral hit and a synthesized buzz when the feet, colors on the body and an eye of the armadillo fades in. Availability: Uncommon to scarce. It was only used for seven years before the fifth logo began to show up. The last game to use this logo was the PlayStation version of Nicktoons Racing (although the Hasbro Interactive logo can still be seen on the cover art). The still version can be found on Time Busters and Test Drive Off-Road 3. Scare Factor: Depending on variant: * Still Variant: None. * Animated Variant: Minimal. However, all of these variants are harmless, compared to it's next incarnation. 5th Logo (2000-2009, 2015) WARNING: Do not watch this video if you are prone to epilepsy. Nicknames: "Seizure Armadillo", "Crazy Armadillo", "The Armadillo Forming of Doom" "InfogrOWAHAHAHAHHHAHA!" "Springy Spiral Armadillo", "Infogrames Armadillo V", "Cool Armadillo", "Color Hysteria (of Doom)" Logo: We cut from black to see a shiny black 3D line de-thickening itself on a flashing rainbow background. The line starts to wiggle and stretch (like a radio-wave), and then snap-compresses itself together like a spring. The line loosens itself to reveal a heavily spiral-stylized armadillo. The armadillo then becomes a 3D flat drawing, and the word "INFOGRAMES", in a black rectangle-like shape, fades in and zooms out in front of the logo. It lands on the logo as the background turns white. A shadow fades in below the logo, and then the entire thing cuts to black. Variants: * A still version exists. The latter appeared on Duck Dodgers. Sometimes, the logo is in the print style seen on game cases by this company, though this variant on some GBA games like Backyard Baseball 2003 could have this variant's colors inverted, with a copyright notice below. * Another variant has the armadillo standing on the left side of the name banner. The background can be black or white. The version with white background appeared on Nicktoons Racing for GBA. This variant was used on European game cases and later american cases as its print logo. * On Splashdown and Stuntman, only the banner appeared on the blue background. Then the Atari logo follows. The 2002 version of Le Mans 24 Hours uses a red background rather than a blue background. * On Roller Coaster Tycoon for Xbox, the logo is inverted, still and pans from bottom to top. Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 has the logo on a white square over a black background, and pans from top to bottom. * For the Lyons House division, it uses the same animation, but when it ends, the armadillo fades out and "Lyons House" writes itself below the banner. It uses a droning synth after the usual music. It is followed by the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment logo and is seen on Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf (or Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider in North America) FX/SFX: The zooming, the flashing colors, the springy line, the 3D effects, the fading. Cheesy Factor: The flashing lights in the first variant could cause seizures, but otherwise nothing's wrong with it. The second variant is cheesy, but in a way that's intended to be funny. The abrupt cut to black feels off. Also, the logo lacks the armadillo's feet, even though the feet were visible in the previous logos. Music/Sounds: Several weird whooshing and stretching sounds and synthesized hit, ending in a heavy synth chord reminiscent of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Cyan Worlds logos. Onthe 2015 iOS version of Pajama Sam: No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside, the music is high pitched. Ghost Vibration has the music running faster and is also higher pitched. Availability: Very common. Used on games published between 2000-2003 until the Infogrames name was replaced by Atari in games published after 2003, but this logo remained a part of the main company itself. One of the only games not to use this logo was the PlayStation 2 version of Wacky Races, which had the Infogrames Sheffield House logo replacing this. Infogrames games branded under the Atari name did not have this logo ether (Except for Ghost Vibration, which had the regular Infogrames logo and no Atari logo outside the packaging). The still version (white on black) made a surprise appearance on the 2015 iOS versions of Spy Fox 3: Operation Ozone and Freddi Fish and the Case of the Creature of Coral Cove, alongside the 1996-2002 Humongous logo, due to an editing mistake. The normal version also appeared on the 2015 iOS version of Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside, due to (yet) another editing mistake. Scare Factor: Low, bordering on medium to nightmare. The flashing and the forming of the armadillo could make most of their gaming audience jump, mainly due to it's seizure-inducing nature and weird logo design. The abruptive end would also help with it. However, it's intended to be funny and lacks darkness, although it's cheesiness still goes with the scare factor. Minimal to medium depending on the variant used, as well as those who used to it. 6th logo (2001) Nicknames: "Armadillo In The Dark II", "Infogrames Armadillo VI" Logo: We fade in to see a primitive version of the 2000s Infogrames logo, colored in white. The armadillo and words are lit up by a flashlight, and then the logo fades out. FX/SFX: The flashlight, the fade in, the fade out. Music/Sounds: Just the wind blowing. Availability: Extremely rare. It's only seen on Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare. Scare Factor: Medium, the wind blowing may scare some. Category:France Category:United States Category:Nightmare Logos Category:Seizure-Inducing Logos